Cantrip
Cantrip is one of the most active and most popular heroes operating in the Raven's Grove area. Shje is a professional rival with Flourish, and the two girls--despite both being heroes--simply do not get along. Background Vanessa Wainbridge hails from the famous Wainbridge family which made such an impact on Darkness Falls. When very young Vanessa was enrolled in the Raven's Grove School for Girls where she received not only a classic education but also intensive and extensive training in Psinomancy, mind magic. Even from such a young age Vanessa had designs on being a superhero, specializing in ridding Raven's Grove of the supernatural elements that threaten her home town. When she graduated she borrowed a hundred thousand dollars from her great-Uncle Chester in order to open up her own paranormal investigation agency, Cantrip LLC. Taking on the titular identity for herself, Vanessa began her laborous efforts of assisting her clients in ridding themselves of hauntings and other phenomena taking place in their homes. By the time she was 19, Vanessa as Cantrip had earned a stellar reputation as a paranormal investigator and magical superhero. She enbgaged in combat with ghosts, demonic entities and negative energies, the rots shambling around certain parts of Raven's Grove, and even had a face to face encounter with the enigmatic Him, the source of the evil in Raven's Grove. This last encounter in particularly really shook her up and to this day she refuses to discuss the experience. When it became publically known that Raven's Grove arch-hero was calling for an 'assistant, technically a mage whom he could name as the guardian of Raven's Grove, Vanessa threw her lot in with a handful of other girls. All of the other girls were inexperienced and still uncertain about their magic skills, whereas Vanessa was experienced, level-headed, and had already proven herself to her community. She was shocked, appauled, and insulted then when she was passed over in favor of a brand new heroine on the scene, Flourish. The snug caused a vehemence in Vanessa that has yet to be resolved. When Cleopatra called for Solitaire to create a branch of Heroes Unlimited in Raven's Grove, Vanessa readily volunteered. To date she has proven herself loyal to the group, responsible with her police powers, and generally indispensable. It it widely believed that if Solitaire ever steps down or retires as leader of Heroes Unlimited: Raven's Grove Cantrip will be the one to step up as the team's new leader. Appearance and Personality Cantrip is 25 years old and the epitome of the Californian beauty: Tall, tanned, and blonde. She is five feet ten inches tall and weight 128 pounds. As Cantrip she wears a bleack leather bustier and thong set, with thigh high black boots and bicep-high black gloves. As her identity is publically known, she doesn't wear a mask. Cantrip is professional at all times, which can often cause her to come across as brusque or cold. More than a superhero she considers herself a police officer and conducts herself accordingly. She carries out orders and instructions from her superiors by the book and treats everyone with the respect she feels they deserve which, in Flourish's case, is very little. She is not at all above insulting Flourish at every opportunity and pointing out the younger heroine's flaws and inexperience. Skills and Talents As a paranormal investigator, Cantrip possesses an encyclopediac knowledge of the paranormal. She is wholly knowledgable on types of magic, hauntings, demons and extra-planar entities, and possessions. She is skilled in the use of all types of paranormal investigation equipment. She is an expert in the Israeli martial are of Krav Maga but rarely has to resprt to it in her day to day crimefighting. She once threatened to use these skills to whip Flourish into shape but as of yet has not followed through on this threat. Cantrip has a classical education, meaning she has had intense instruction on the art, language and grammar (she speaks French, Latin, and Hebrew fluently), logic and philosophy, higher mathematics, and political science. She is an extremely skilled observer and investigator and has displayed superb leadership skills in the past. Powers Cantrip is a psinomancer, meaning her field of study and expertise are the magics of the mind. She is not able to cast spells in the traditional sense, her magic skill is more oriented toward gleaning information. By making use of ritual tools such as bowls of water, specifically constructed mirrors, and the like Cantrip is able to read the thoughts of others including plunging in to their deepest memories and dreams. With consent of another person she can actually enter memories, rearranging them and bringing locked memories back to the surface to help others overcome irrational phobias and other disorders. Given enough time to work she can bring coma patients to full wakefulness and eliminate mental illnesses. By the same token, she is able to freely enter the real called alternately the Dream World, Dream Lands, or The Dreaming and quietly observe her patient's dreams, helping to interpret them or eliminate chorinic nightmares. Her magic can be, and often is, utilized for her paranormal investigations. She is able to sense emotions and moods and, more, can reverse them or change them to help the restless dead move on. In battle, she is able to turn her empathic magic into a direct arsenal, causing her foes to feel panic, dread, and other crippling emotions. She is able to effect only one person at a time currently, but is in training to learn how to effect entire groups of people at once. Her ability to scan moods also works wonders as a lie detector, making it nearly impossible for someone to lie to her and get away with it. Quote "Oh yes. I can sense it. Something very bad happened in this house. Very bad." Rogues Gallery Hands down Cantrip's arch-nemesis is the villain Peppermint, whom was herself a student at the School for Girls and at one time was Vanessa's best friend. Where Vanessa chose to use her magic skills for the betterment of society, Peppermint went the other way and uses her magic to terrorize others. It is said that Pappermint might be the apprentice to the Raven's Grove Overlord Trick Hand but so far no evidence to confirm that fact has been discovered. Rivalry with Flourish Cantrip's personal and professional rivalry with Flourish is the stuff of legends. It's not a friendly rivalry, either; the two young ladies sincerely do not like each other. Cantrip's opinion of Flourish is that she's a brat, lacks common sense, and has no respect for others. Cantrip will often verbally abuse Flourish when they happen to be working a mission together. The two girls will sling personal and professional insults back and forth, often to the detriment of the mission or their fellow heroes. Cantrip has, on a few occasions, allowed her dislike for Flourish to interrupt her objectivity and professionalism. She has been so focused on pointing out everything Flourish is doing wrong that she has made the overall mission objjective harder for her teammates. She has been written up twice by Solitaire for professional misconduct.